Ed has 40 years experience with the MIG Welding process controls and has provided weld process improvement and process control training to over a thousand manufactures in ten different countries.

For 18 years Ed wrote the Weld QA section in Weld Design Fabrication. Ed also wrote the weld and cutting sections in the Machinery Handbook and rewrote the Thermal Cutting Section" on Laser-Plasma-Oxy Fuel cutting in the ASM Handbook, Ninth Edition 1988. Ed has had over 35 articles published on Manual and Robot Weld Process Controls and written five books on the subject of MIG and flux cored weld process controls. Ed was a key AWS Committee member that developed the USA. AWS. "MIG Gas Specifications".

This MIG Welding Forum, discussion and advice section is intended for legitimate weld related questions and content. This is not a location for welding industry sales persons to tout their weld products, generate sales leads or saturate the welding industry with more biased weld product advice.

For decades MIG / flux cored weld process confusion and the reliance on salesmanship has distracted the global weld industry from the establishment of fundamental Best Weld Practices and the implementation of cost effective Weld Process Controls. 1988: From a speech provided by Ed at a seminar given to the Brazilian Engineering Society. Rio.

Your value to your wife is how quickly
you apologize and say "Yes Dear"

The Global Missing Link from Weld Education: Global weld educational facilities may offer weld diplomas and degrees, however in the last three decades, the majority of these institutions have failed to educate their potential engineers, technicians and weld personnel on the fundamentals necessary to establish effective MIG and flux cored Best Weld Practices and Weld Process Controls.


The global welding industry needs Engineers and technicians that are Process Control experts in the bread and butter processes.

[] Weld decision makers that can "without playing around" instantly produce cost effective, optimum quality, MIG / FCAW manual / robot welds.

[] Engineers and technicians that can optimize manual MIG and flux cored robot weld production efficiency.

[] Engineers and technicians that can cut through the costly bells, whistles and salesmanship that saturates the global weld industry.

[] Engineers and technicians that have the ability to establish cost effective
Weld Best Practices and Weld Process Controls.

Welding is not about the ability to play around with a single weld process. It takes less than two weeks to train a "none welder" to be able to MIG or flux cored weld any application to meet any weld specification, yet the weld educational facilities will spend months or years and the finished product is too often weld personnel that "play around" with their weld controls, weld individuals that too frequently will rely on weld salesmen for weld advice.

Weld educational facilities should examine the value of their welding programs. The typical tight budget, North American education facilities often have to rely on weld equipment vendors for charitable weld equipment donations, (no bias in their weld programs or weld equipment recommendations). Many of these shoe string institutions have made minimal changes to their stick / oxy fuel weld programs that were developed in the nineteen sixties. It's time industry and weld educators understood the value of effective "process controls" and responded to an industry that looses hundreds of millions of dollars daily from weld rework, weld rejects and poor weld productivity.

INSTEAD OF PROVIDING A STICK WELD AND OXY FUEL WELD EDUCATION BASED ON 1960s CURRICULUM, WELD EDUCATION FACILITIES SHOULD GIVE THE GLOBAL WELD INDUSTRY SOMETHING IT REALLY NEEDS:

With weld educational and training focus on the MIG and flux cored requirements for Best Weld Practices and Weld Process Controls, community Colleges and Universities would then realize that the contribution they would offer industry would provide them with a logical reason to ask for more funds for their programs. Properly trained weld engineers, technicians and weld personnel would have the unique ability to generate hundreds of millions of dollars daily through improved manual and robot MIG / flux cored weld productivity and quality.

MIG WELDING FORUM & ADVICE

Please keep your weld or cutting questions and answers to the point. If looking for welding or steel data first look in the main MIG Weld site, or in this section using key words in the Search Discussion. The Search Discussion will bring up the history of hundreds of the weld questions used.

WELD QUESTIONS: If asking a weld question, when relevant please provide the robot, manual or automated weld transfer mode, the material type, the weld surface conditions, the part thickness, the weld consumable type and size, the weld gas, the wire feed speed, travel speed, amps and the voltage.

Again I remind the readers at this site, don't get angry at the messenger. Examine the strong message of lack of management process ownership in this industry. Understand the influence of weld salesmanship on this self taught industry. Focus on the root causes of your daily weld issues and then use weld process control logic and knowledge to provide cost effective, practical solutions.